# ethics discussion

Seth I. Rich (sir@po.cwru.edu)
Mon, 26 Feb 1996 08:17:33 PST

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    I realize I'm leaping into this discussion against my better judgment,
    but I'm perhaps not known for having better judgment in the first place.

    There are several aspects about MOOs which make them administering them
    different from administering regular systems.  MOOs are spaces, places
    in which users live, not merely systems on which people work.  There's a
    life to it which isn't there in plain-jane UNIX systems, for example.
    This virtual life carries along with it all the baggage of real life;
    emotional hassles on the MOO can be an -awful- bear when you're dragging
    around a wizbit as well.

    For many MOO admins, wizzing is the first administrative role they've
    ever had.  (Others, like me, have no such excuse.)  It's a difficult
    thing to have, for example, a RL mess which takes place in part on the
    MOO.  It takes an amazingly responsible person (IMO) to resist the
    temptation that exists when in such a situation.

    Someone else said something which is relevant: If the admins of a system
    are not trusted by the system's users, those users will leave.  They
    have, in essence, the policing power which was proposed in the initial
    message.  I don't go to systems where I don't trust the admins.  Period.
    People who know me know that in past I was very flaky, and I did some
    things which I wouldn't, now.  In the time since, I've watched other
    people make the same mistakes I did.  Their users reacted.

    I don't think it would be useful to attempt to shackle a code of ethics
    onto people who have nothing in common.  (I've just started a MOO
    project which has no interactive sessions or user data; such a code
    would be entirely useless to me in that application.)  Users do a more
    than adequate job of warning their friends when something slimy's
    happened.

    (I also don't think some of the 'ethics' included in the original post
    are ethical at all.  Whether I choose to try to expand my MOO hacking
    ability is irrelevant -- I think my time is better spent documenting
    things and teaching users.  This was not an ethical decision.)

    Seth / Blackbriar

    --
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Seth I. Rich - sir@po.cwru.edu - http://corporate.hygnet.com/~seth/
                                     There is nothing more precious than
    Rabbits on walls, no problem.    a tear of true repentance.